LOT DETAILS

Materials:

handwritten poem in ink on paper with twine-bound penknife mounted on card

Measurements:

3.98 in. (10.10 cm.) (height) by 5.04 in. (12.80 cm.) (width)

Markings:

signed and dated 'André Breton 26-12-34.' (lower right); inscribed 'château de Fougères Pour Valentine.' (on a card attached to the reverse of the mount)

Exhibited:

New York, La boetie, A Selection of Objects by Artists, 1915-1965, October 1981 - January 1982, no. 7, n.p. (illustrated n.p.). Los Angeles, County Museum of Art, The Dada & Surrealist Word-Image, June - August 1989, pp. 50, 53 & 126 (illustrated fig. 49, p. 52); this exhibition later travelled to Connecticut, Wadsworth Atheneum, October - December 1989; and Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle, February - May 1990. Paris, Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, André Breton: La beauté convulsive, April - August 1991, p. 482 (illustrated p. 294); this exhibition later travelled to Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, André Breton y el surrealismo, October - December 1991, p. 254 (illustrated). Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle, Surreal Objects. Three-Dimensional Works from Dalí to Man Ray, February - May 2011, p. 219 (illustrated fig. 1; illustrated again p. 150; with incorrect dimensions). New York, Blain Di Donna, Dada & Surrealist Objects, October - December 2013, pp. 52 & 138 (illustrated p. 53).

Literature:

L. Rochon, 'Humour Noir et Surréalisme, in Europe, vol. 46, nos. 475-476, Paris, November - December 1968, p. 66 (illustrated). J.H. Matthews, The Imagery of Surrealism, Syracuse, 1977, p. 182 (illustrated). O. Paz, Je vois, j'imagine, Poèmes-objets, Paris, 1991, p. 170 (illustrated fig. 5, p. 20). P. Powrie, 'The Surrealist Poème-Objet', in S. Levy, ed., Surrealism: Surrealist Visuality, Keele, 1996, pp. 63-66 (illustrated fig. 5.2, p. 64). S. Alexandrian, Les Peintres Surréalistes, Paris, 2009, p. 126 (illustrated). J.C. Stout, Objects Observed: The Poetry of Things in Twentieth Century France and America, Toronto, 2018, pp. 50-51.

Provenance:

Valentine Hugo, Paris, a gift from the artist, in 1934. Jean Petithory, Paris, by whom acquired from the above. Private collection, Paris, by whom acquired from the above. Timothy Baum, New York, by whom acquired from the above. Acquired from the above, on 4 November 2013.